libgdx-2d-rendering

libGDX 2D Rendering

Reference for SpriteBatch, ShapeRenderer, Texture, TextureRegion, TextureAtlas, Camera/Viewport integration, draw ordering, blending, and screen clearing.

Texture

// Load from internal assets
Texture tex = new Texture(Gdx.files.internal("image.png"));

// With specific filtering and wrapping
Texture tex = new Texture(Gdx.files.internal("image.png"));
tex.setFilter(TextureFilter.Nearest, TextureFilter.Nearest); // pixel art
tex.setFilter(TextureFilter.Linear, TextureFilter.Linear);   // smooth scaling
tex.setWrap(TextureWrap.Repeat, TextureWrap.Repeat);         // tiling

TextureFilter — min/mag:

Filter	Use for	Result
Nearest	Pixel art, retro games	Sharp pixels, no blurring
Linear	Smooth artwork, UI	Bilinear interpolation
MipMapLinearLinear	Large textures drawn small	Smooth mipmapped (min filter only)

Default filter is Nearest. For smooth-scaled artwork, you must explicitly set Linear.

TextureWrap: ClampToEdge (default), Repeat, MirroredRepeat. Only Repeat/MirroredRepeat require power-of-two texture dimensions.

Power-of-two: Not required for general use on modern GPUs. Only required when using Repeat/MirroredRepeat wrap modes or mipmaps. Non-POT textures work fine with ClampToEdge (the default).

Disposal: Textures hold GPU memory — you MUST call dispose() when done. See Disposal section below.

TextureRegion

A rectangular sub-area of a Texture. Used for sprite sheets, tilesets, and atlas regions. Drawing a TextureRegion does NOT copy pixels — it references the parent Texture with UV coordinates.

Texture sheet = new Texture(Gdx.files.internal("spritesheet.png"));

// Single region: x, y, width, height (pixels, top-left origin)
TextureRegion region = new TextureRegion(sheet, 0, 0, 32, 32);

// Split entire sheet into a 2D array of regions
TextureRegion[][] frames = TextureRegion.split(sheet, 32, 32); // tileWidth, tileHeight
TextureRegion firstFrame = frames[0][0]; // row 0, col 0

// Flip (sprite sheets sometimes have Y flipped)
region.flip(false, true); // flipX, flipY